


Little Dolphin

by Hiver_Frost_Elf



Series: STAR Blazers [7]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Adoption, Angst with a Happy Ending, Birthday Party, Blind Character, Child Abuse, Deutsch | German, Disneyathon, Family, Français | French, Gen, Go Nora!, Hugs, Lewis Snart Is His Own Warning in This Fandom, Plushies, meta characters who aren't metas in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-14 14:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9185273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hiver_Frost_Elf/pseuds/Hiver_Frost_Elf
Summary: Nora Allen doesn't always get kidnapped by Lewis and his hoodlums, but when she does, it's on the day of a birthday party for her youngest niece and youngest sons.Oh, and uh, btdubs, her newest son is rather explosive.





	1. Plot

**Author's Note:**

> Newcomers, welcome. You're more than welcome to read this fic without reading chapter one of all subsequent parts first, and I realize asking you to do that's a tall order. If I was smarter, I would've made STAR Blazers a chaptered fic, but unfortunately, I'm only mortal. Sorry.
> 
> Oldcomers, welcome back. The beginning feels heavier than anything else published in this series so far, but if you can survive it, you'll receive birthday and family fluffiness.

Nora huffed indignantly at clean-shaven, balding Lewis shoving her into a shed.  The sun hadn’t even awakened when his ruffians grabbed her, slapped power-suppressing cuffs onto her wrists without even checking to ensure she did indeed possess powers, and spirited her to the outskirts of the city.  Dust, grease, and oil stagnated the air.  Light needled between swatches of filth on the lone window: a slot beyond her reach.

She frowned upon discovering this was not her prison alone.  Her cellmate sported three dimples on the left side of his face.  His hair hadn’t seen so much as a comb in ages.  He was barefoot and wearing a threadbare tank top and fraying denim shorts.

“Hello, what’s your name?” she asked as she jiggled a bobby pin through her cuffs.

“Je m’appelle Axel Walker Sans Souci,” he sniffled and shivered in his cobweb-conquered corner with his knees against his chest.  Free at last, Nora offered her cardigan. “Non! My hands explode stuff!”

Nora snapped the anorexic chain connecting the cuffs and offered them to Axel, explaining that her children used a version of these to control their powers.  His frown quivered upon discovering she was a mother.  She maneuvered them ever so carefully around his ankles and her pastel yellow cardigan around his back.  Axel tapped the wall with his fingertips, then one hand, then both hands before he was satisfied his curse couldn’t hurt Nora.

Axel looked up at her with tear-bloated eyes, “I didn’t get a birthday party cuz the icicle escalator went va-zoosh.  Mommy stayed normal, mais an old guy chased Maman et moi avec his tanks.”

_Sergeant Sans Souci urged her son not to look back, yet Axel was no soldier.  His mother’s pendants—a coin lookalike and a fang—jingled and flopped as he darted as quickly as his new body would carry him.  He dove into a trench and peered up at his orange-haired mother standing her ground against their wannabe captor.  She spooked Eiling’s goons with a mere step forward.  None of his barks rallied their courage._

_“Your gift can keep the world safe, can’t you see that!?” Eiling bellowed his exasperation at this alleged traitor._

_“I know it can,” Eiling’s troops abandoned him to safeguard their own lives when Sergeant Sans Souci pinned him onto grassless ground. “It’ll be safer when you’re not in it.”_

_She glanced over her shoulder and nodded at her son in the split-second before a blazing maw swallowed her and Eiling.  Axel remained frozen there for hours.  His adoptive mother died silently; his biological mother died screaming._

“A bunch of weirdos burned my house—avec Mommy still in it!” Axel whimpered.  Nora held him tighter than ever.

_Axel slashed and kicked and chomped at James Jesse until the older man tossed him into the back of the van.  Woodward groaned and would’ve kicked Axel with a metallic boot if Lewis hadn’t blasted him with an icy pulse.  Axel wailed as a glacier squashed his chest._

_“I can tell you were raised by women cuz all you ever do is cry!” Lewis blasted Axel again—his mouth this time—to shut him up._

_Axel woke up in a stagnant dungeon and James towering over him, teasing a box of chicken nuggets in his pocket with a chicken in his hands.  The creature clucked and whipped its head.  Its thrashing yielded as futile results as Axel’s._

_“C’mon, m’boy,” James grinned at this shivering stranger. “All ya gotta do is fry this birdie, and you can come inside!”_

_“Non!” Axel’s defrosting tears crackled as he hissed with his hands around his stomach._

_“Daddy’s gotta bed all set up for you—it’s gotta pillow and Deadpool sheets!”_

_“Non!!”_

_“I’ll steal you a car and teacha howda drive!” James closed his grin. “Badges won’t think twice; you look old enough.”_

_“Non!!!” Axel snarled.  He overestimated how tall James was; his gaze ended up locked on the ceiling. “I’ll never explode anybody you bring me!”_

_“....Then I guess you’ll never eat,” James cremated the bird feathers and all.  He slipped Axel the nuggets after everyone else was too drunk or too asleep to notice him sneaking around their bunker._

Axel’s voice hurt too much to cry anymore—ice raked his throat inside and out.  Nora stroked Axel’s back and pillowed his clammy head on her shoulder, “Axel baby, I know I can never be your Maman or your Mommy, but I would love to be your Mutti.”

“What’s a Mutti?” Axel purred his confusion.  His gaze lifted yet didn’t meet hers.

“‘Mutti’ is German for ‘maman’,” she explained, tilting his damp head to face her.  She knew enough French and possessed enough wisdom to understand her newest son even though she wouldn’t be able to follow a monologue.

She led them over to the door.  Nora began to suspect why he insistently clasped her hand if not solely for emotional support, “What’s German for ‘bye’?”

“Tschüss!”

“Okay, good! I only wanted to learn it so I’d never say it to you, Mutti.”

“I never want to say ‘tschüss’ to you either, Axel.”

“Will you call me Little Dolphin instead, please?” he meekly requested. “I’m not really little anymore, but I’m an even better dolphin now!” Nora faced him with confusion. “I click so I don’t bump into stuff!”

He let go of her hand and waddled around the room and back to her side with clicks accompanying his every step.  He clasped her hand again in time for her to ask, “Little Dolphin, how old are you?”

“J’ai cinq ans!” Axel accidently smooshed her nose with his other hand. “Next year, I’ll need deux mains to show people how old I am; I’m so excited!”

Nora leaned over the keyhole.  Len, Mick, and Lisa gave everybody a crash course in Escape Artist and Sleight of Hand—even Martin and Joe surrendered when the trio explained the likelihood of Lewis and his hoodlums targeting them—for which Nora was eternally grateful.  She passed her first field tests smoothly and buckled Axel in beside her.

A dusty van chugged awake.  Lewis and James dashed out too late to stop them.  Nora sneered at them and Woodward who’d finally arrived, “Gentlemen, it has not been a pleasure.”

Axel flapped his tongue at the windshield as the duo departed, “Tschüss!”

A frisky-haired bloke mouthed “thank you” to Nora and perfunctorily charged his firepower.  He crossed his stream with Lewis’s “by mistake”, yielding a harmless gush of water instead.  James didn’t care what crap he endured for it later—nobody hurt his son!  Just because he ran out on Axel before he was named didn’t mean he’d condemn him to Lewis’s tender love and care.

Nora foraged for some clothes and sneakers for Axel.  She guided him into Solnishko’s old room before wrangling herself a mug of coffee.  She had five minutes of peace before Caitlin burst into the house with a blizzard ablaze in her palms, “Did imposter Solnishko kidnap Brüderchen again!?”

“Barry,” Nora corrected with one hand on her hip and her other latched around her mug, “is a wonderful person who knitted me a lovely sweater.  Sternchen went with him of his own free will.  He was gone for a grand total of three hours; he had Blue Lightning and Barry keeping him safe.” Caitlin folded her arms and snorted.  Nora set her coffee on the counter she was leaning against, “Do you know which of one of your little brothers needs a protective, doting older sister?” Axel toddled in right on time.  She joined Caitlin and Axel’s hands together, “Little Dolphin, this is Cait.  Schneeflocke, this is Axel.”

“Mutti, you can’t just bring random weirdos home!” Caitlin hissed and folded her arms.

“Mick brought Solnishko home,” Nora stared her down, “and I most certainly was not going to leave Axel in Lewis’s garage.”

Caitlin frowned at the L-name.  She defrosted at last and welcomed Axel into their ‘ohana with a hug.

“Why do we call you Hermano anyway?” Charlie asked her oldest younger brother as they carted chairs into the backyard.  Solnishko wanted a Disneyathon because Disney movies didn’t exist on TESS Earth—unless Star Wars counted, which no!—so Clarissa ingeniously suggested movies in the yard instead of movies in the park.  One of the many benefits of living next-door to family: communal property. “Is it because you’re Hispanic?”

“Heck no!” Cisco’s hair flopped when he scoffed. “It’s because I speak Spanish!”

“What’s gonna happen if we adopt another little brother?” Charlie couldn’t help wondering as they set up their bounty of folding chairs. “Are we gonna call him Brüderchen and Solnishko… something else???”

“We’re gonna call him Frère because he speaks French,” Caitlin decreed as she tucked a red tablecloth over the dessert table.  She flicked her head towards the sliding glass doors. “He’s inside with Mutti.”

Cisco and Charlie ditched their duties faster than a snap.  Nora sent Solnishko a pic of Axel chatting with them.

 _Redhead: Fingers crossed, I may have finally gotten Cait off your back ;) Axel_ _didn’t get a birthday party because the icicle accelerator went va-zoosh, so he’s sharing yours and Jesse’s.  Could you go build a girl dolphin named Tricky for him, bitte?_

_Blitz: Iris, do they have dolphins @ BaBW???_

_Southeast: It’s basically an aquarium right now_

_Redhead: He doesn’t have a favorite color, but he misses the feel of his maman’s army jacket_

Nora didn’t receive another text, yet lightning thundered outside ten minutes later.  Solnishko chirped his greetings and wore his raccoon beanie and chirped his greetings.  Axel clapped his hands and hopped, “You’re my youngest older brother!”

“That’s right!” Solnishko nodded with his eyes closed, trying to imagine how Axel “saw” the world.  He clumsily handed him Tricky and Axel couldn’t have been happier.  Solnishko told him about the Disneyathon and requested _Mulan_.

“Mulan reminds me of Maman,” Axel grinned while hugging Tricky. “She got used to working with a bunch of stinky boys, so she fell in love avec Mommy because Mommy smelled nice; Mommy fell in love avec Maman because Maman was tougher than Hulk.”

“We’ll play _Mulan_ first,” Solnishko said with his eyes still closed.  The urge to open them overwhelmed him. “Schwesterchen would love it, so we were gonna start with that one anyway.”

Jesse arrived moments later to help with set up.  Joe, Iris, Wally, Eddie, Ronnie, and Linda came bearing munchkins and coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts.  Motorcycles revved into the driveway before Mark and Clyde scampered into the backyard.  Harrison, Harry, Hartley, and Tina carpooled with Lisa, Len, and Mick.

"Wife-in-law!" came Harry's strangled cry as he powered down his When All Hell Breaks Loose rifle to hug Nora.  She petted his hair and assured him she was no worse for wear, yet he still wanted to murder Lewis and every last one of his hoodlums.

"You can work on that tomorrow, Harry," Nora shook her head as they set out pigs-on-a-blanket. "Today, we party!"

Shawna, Penguin, Alfred, and the Teen Titans teleported from Gotham.  Batman set his batbrownies on the dessert table and Alfred hoisted a cracker platter onto the legit food table while the others rigged up some lightning streamers.

Martin and Clarissa brought a store’s worth of popcorn which Solnishko used to demonstrate the popcorn dance to the speedsters.  He shook the bag over and beside his head for one second, the other side for another second, and then straight up over his head for one more second before spinning around, “Ta-da!” He popped one into his mouth after he explained, “You gotta spin and say ta-da first; otherwise, popcorn will stampede out of the bag.”

The foursome shook up popcorn until they filled an entire table worth’s of buttery treasure.  Caitlin checked on their progress with Axel in tow.  She hummed her approval before ordering, “Go buy a cake.” Softer, she faced Axel and asked, “What’s your favorite flavor, Little Dolphin?”

“Je déteste le gateau! Je préfère la glace!!!”

“What kind of ice cream do you like, Axel?” Hartley chuckled as he set up twisty rainbow candles on Solnishko’s red velvet cake with buttercream frosting smeared all over it.  Jesse preferred ice cream cakes, so hers would be brought out when they were ready.

“Chocolate! With chocolate sprinkles and chocolate syrup and chocolate chips and a tower of whipped cream taller than me!” Axel stood on his toes and stretched his arms as high as they would go.

Iris fetched Axel’s order.  He froze his brain and stained his face with gusto.  He even managed to dot his nose with the stuff.

They were just about to sing to the trio when Axel protested, “YOU CAN’T SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY WHEN IT’S NOBODY’S BIRTHDAY OR NOBODY WILL EVER HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVER AGAIN!!!”

“Okay, baby, we’ll sing something else,” Nora soothed her hyperventilating son. “[Rock Mi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWjYtOH5WrY)!”

“Mutti, [Rock Mi](http://oktoberfest-songs.com/rock-mi-lyrics.html) is an Oktoberfest song,” said Caitlin.

“If we can sing Christmas carols from October to February, we can sing Oktoberfest songs any month of the year,” Nora declared. “Everybody, circle up, grab your neighbors’ shoulders, and get some swaying action going on.” She looked around and approved their swaying. “Wonderful.  German speakers, we’ll lead.  Everybody else, just do your best.”

Most of them botched the German, Clyde couldn’t sing for shit, and Harrison couldn’t dance at all, yet nobody cared cuz they were an ‘ohana.  ‘Ohana means family, and family means many different things to many different people.  To these people, family usually meant nobody hurt each other nobody no matter how they got, and when somebody goes missing, go look for them.  But it meant something else first even though nobody said it out loud: when someone is cold and alone in the dark, don’t leave them there—bring them home.  True, not all of them were ever literally cold and alone in literal darkness, but they all were in a [better place](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvI9PuGorwI) no matter where they came from, and the world was safer with every last one of them in it.

The End!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for taking time to read this :3 Enjoy what you do here and everywhere!


	2. Commentary

Welcome to the second-to-last (planned) installment of STAR Blazers.  If you're dreading STAR Blazers coming to an end, I can always add random stuff to (Fingers Crossed) AND they could always fight Trigon :) :D :3  Kudos to y'all for sticking with the series this long.

I marveled at how short AHS was only to write an EVER SHORTER installment this time around. Sheesh!

 

The summary was inspired by "the most interesting man in the world" commercial/meme and the summary for WLYSS.  I had absolutely no clue what to write for the summary, which was bizarre seeing as how I pretty much know how a story's gonna go down once I start writing it because by the time I write it, I have an outline either in my head or in my notes.  This was my most difficult summary for any fic I've written to date.

 

_Light needled between swatches of filth on the lone window: a slot beyond her reach._

I'm a basement dweller, so my window's just like this.  My bedroom's cold, dark, and has a thin slab of a rug: an inch-thin barrier between bare feet and concrete.  But hey, it's home :)

 

_“Je m’appelle Axel Walker Sans Souci,” he sniffled and shivered in his cobweb-conquered corner with his knees against his chest.  Free at last, Nora offered her cardigan. “Non! My hands explode stuff!”_

According to the arrowverse wiki, Sergeant Sans Souci is Canadian in the comics and her last name Sans Souci means "carefree".  Y'all know how I feel about including non-English languages in my fics, and Hartley speaks French, so I jumped at the chance to put my ~~three semesters of French~~  googling skills to good use.  Axel's Maman is Sergeant Sans Souci and his Mommy is whoever the hell his canon mother is.  One of the most nerve-racking things for me as an author is introducing new characters, so let me know what you think of Axel, James, and Sergeant Sans Souci--or just any thoughts on any of the characters--or just any thoughts at all.  I love hearing from you guys.  I also understand if you're too shy to comment or even kudos because I'm one of those folks too.  Just the fact that anybody is reading my stuff at all is encouraging, and I can't thank y'all enough.

 

_Axel looked up at her with tear-bloated eyes, “I didn’t get a birthday party cuz the icicle escalator went va-zoosh.  Mommy stayed normal, mais an old guy chased Maman et moi avec his tanks.”_

The Shawna = Nightwing debacle taught me to fear out of nowhere revelations, so hopefully Axel being five years old is properly foreshadowed.  In hindsight, I either should've never published JWYM's extension or waited until after UWMA to do so; however, I refuse to take it down out of respect for folks who like it.  This may just be incoming finale nerves talking, but I dunno if this Little Dolphin's one of my best fics either.  The pressure is on to a) end STAR Blazers on a bang and b) finish STAR Blazers before next semester because I've been dreaming up other fics for weeks now, and I wanna do them justice instead of trying to split my time between multiple demanding projects and life.  That would just be a disaster.  I didn't fail any classes last semester, yet I definitely need to study more... and by "more" I mean "at all".

 

_“Your gift can keep the world safe, can’t you see that!?” Eiling bellowed his exasperation at this alleged traitor._

_“I know it can,” Eiling’s troops abandoned him to safeguard their own lives when Sergeant Sans Souci pinned him onto grassless ground. “It’ll be safer when you’re not in it.”_

_She glanced over her shoulder and nodded at her son in the split-second before a blazing maw swallowed her and Eiling._

Is anybody upset that I killed off Eiling?  Or that STAR Blazers!Sergeant Sans Souci accomplished the goal her canon counterpart didn't?  No? Great.

I'm not happy that she or her wife are dead, obviously, but I am happy to kill off an asshole as vengeance against all of the assholes I can't kill off.

Also, I accomplished the arduous task of killing off a likeable character.  I hate New Years resolutions.

Sargeant Sans Souci's dying words were inspired by her arrowverse wiki quote.

 

_“Non!!!” Axel snarled.  He overestimated how tall James was; his gaze ended up locked on the ceiling. “I’ll never explode anybody you bring me!”_

I also really wanted the Axel's blind revelation to be properly foreshadowed.  Apologies if I've inaccurately portrayed blindness or echolocation.

 

_“‘Mutti’ is German for ‘maman’,” she explained, tilting his damp head to face her.  She knew enough French and possessed enough wisdom to understand her newest son even though she wouldn’t be able to follow a monologue._

This is basically how I treat what little I use from other languages.  I wouldn't be able to follow a monologue either, and I'll never claim to be the wisest person on the planet, but for most of the words and phrases I use, I hope context provides enough clues to infer what they mean.  That, and the fact that you're most likely online to read these fics means a translator/dictionary is a tab away, so you can always use that too.

Once again, I invite native/better-than-me speakers to correct me for any translation errors.  I dread making mistakes, but what I dread even more is a mistake living on ignored by eternity, so please point out any mistakes I make.  I'll beat myself up forever over them, yet in the long run, correcting them is better for me in the long run to avoid them in the future.

 

_She led them over to the door.  Nora began to suspect why he insistently clasped her hand if not solely for emotional support, “What’s German for ‘bye’?”_

_“Tschüss!”_

This is an informal way to say "goodbye".  "Servus" is also informal and is basically "aloha" since it can mean "hi" and "bye".  I personally like it better than "hallo" because if I wanna say "hallo" I might as well say "hello".  I like the exotic factor of foreign languages, and "hallo" just doesn't have that in my humble opinion.

 

_“Okay, good! I only wanted to learn it so I’d never say it to you, Mutti.”_

_“I never want to say ‘tschüss’ to you either, Axel.”_

Awwwwwww

 

_Len, Mick, and Lisa gave everybody a crash course in Escape Artist and Sleight of Hand_

Pathfinder reference

 

_A dusty van chugged awake.  Lewis and James dashed out too late to stop them.  Nora sneered at them and Woodward who’d finally arrived, “Gentlemen, it has not been a pleasure.”_

_Axel flapped his tongue at the windshield as the duo departed, “Tschüss!”_

hahahahahaha

 

_She had five minutes of peace before Caitlin burst into the house with a blizzard ablaze in her palms, “Did imposter Solnishko kidnap Brüderchen again!?”_

See Knitwit chapter 3 for imposter Solnishko shenanigans.

 

_She joined Caitlin and Axel’s hands together, “Little Dolphin, this is Cait.  Schneeflocke, this is Axel.”_

"Schneeflocke" means "snowflake" and is indeed feminine.  I imagine Nora calls Charlie "Snowflake" because Charlie doesn't speak German.  She calls Cisco "Häschen" which means "little bunny".  "Sternchen" means "little star", and from what I've read, adding "chen" onto a German word makes it diminutive and neutral.  It's kinda like Japanese's "chan" I guess.  I'm not the expert on any language, so please don't take my word as law.

 

_“Mutti, you can’t just bring random weirdos home!” Caitlin hissed and folded her arms._

_“Mick brought Solnishko home,” Nora stared her down, “and I most certainly was not going to leave Axel in Lewis’s garage.”_

Mic drop

 

_Cisco and Charlie ditched their duties faster than a snap._

awwwww

 

“Mulan reminds me of Maman,” Axel grinned while hugging Tricky. “She got used to working with a bunch of stinky boys, so she fell in love avec Mommy because Mommy smelled nice; Mommy fell in love avec Maman because Maman was tougher than Hulk.”

hahahaha

awwwwww

Incidentally, "Maman" rhymes with "Mulan".

 

_Solnishko said with his eyes still closed.  The urge to open them overwhelmed him._

This always happens to me whenever I close my eyes for a long time.

Also, these folks don't have a family tree, they have a family forest.  I've attempted to construct it on multiple occasions and gave up each and every time.  If anybody feels so inclined to gift me one, I'll joyfully accept it.

 

_Batman set his batbrownies_

hahahaha

The trope in play here is [The Comically Serious](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheComicallySerious).

The lightning streamers were inspired by canon!James' lightning paper chain.

 

_“Chocolate! With chocolate sprinkles and chocolate syrup and chocolate chips and a tower of whipped cream taller than me!” Axel stood on his toes and stretched his arms as high as they would go._

Ugh! Axel's so adorbs!

If I'm not triggering some sort of emotional reaction(s) out of my reader(s), I fail at writing.  One of my favorite Youtube channels is Renegades React because I react to stuff better when other people are reacting along with me.  You know how it is; when you're all alone, you chuckle at best, but with buddies (or complete strangers on a screen), the dumbest joke becomes the highest form of comedy.

 

_They were just about to sing to the trio when Axel protested, “YOU CAN’T SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY WHEN IT’S NOBODY’S BIRTHDAY OR NOBODY WILL EVER HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVER AGAIN!!!”_

_“Okay, baby, we’ll sing something else,” Nora soothed her hyperventilating son. “[Rock Mi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWjYtOH5WrY)!”_

_“Mutti,[Rock Mi](http://oktoberfest-songs.com/rock-mi-lyrics.html) is an Oktoberfest song,” said Caitlin._

_“If we can sing Christmas carols from October to February, we can sing Oktoberfest songs any month of the year,” Nora declared._

I've refrained from saying this throughout this commentary, and it is long overdue....  Go Nora!  She escaped Lewis with skills she'd learned a week or two ago at best, she freed and adopted Axel, and she ensured the rest of her 'ohana accepted him as well.  As (I hope) this series so beautifully demonstrates, you don't need superpowers to be a superhero, and you don't need to become a superhero just because you have superpowers if you don't want to.  Harrison said in UWMA, "You enfold orphans into your ‘ohana; that is one of the most heroic things you can do" which is basically a one sentance summary of this fic.  Nora's superpower is unconditional love, and she is a superhero.

And on that note, good morning/afternoon/evening/night, folks.


End file.
